MTPs: Metropolitan Transportation Plans

Metropolitan Transportation Plans are composed of priority lists of projects and project segments that are being advanced toward implementation over the next twenty years. Projects are selected for inclusion through a comprehensive, coordinated and continuing transportation planning process. This planning process identifies needs in the planning study area, tests alternative solutions, and proposes allocation of financial resources.

These plans are prepared every five years by the Regional Planning Commission (RPC) in cooperation with its member-parishes, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, and, affected transit operators. This is done in accordance with the provisions of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), which authorizes federal transit and highway programs through Fiscal Year 2009. This is the the successor legislation of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21).

Highway and Transit elements of MTPs are divided into three tiers that correspond to expected implementation dates:

Tier I

Transportation Improvement Program: A three-year, fiscally constrained implementation program for the immediate fiscal years.

Tier II

These projects are those longer-range improvements that are in the planning and development stage during the following two fiscal years, and are expected to advance toward implementation based on availability of funding.

Tier III

These are long-range projects that typically are complex to implement (fiscally, environmentally, etc.), and projects that are deemed necessary but are as yet without an identified funding source.

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